Viking Line has cancelled all of its FSTR catamaran's Monday departures and arrivals between Tallinn and Helsinki due to an engine fault. The company has announced that the Tallink M/S Star will replace the vessel on the 8:15 pm route from Tallinn to Helsinki.

The Viking Line Faster, known as FSTR.
Image: Viking Line

The Finnish-owned cruise operator Viking Line called off its routes to Tallinn on its new FSTR catamaran boat on Monday due to an engine problem.

"There's a motor malfunction that we noticed last night (Sunday). Nothing serious, but it will take an entire day to repair. We decided to take it out of operation," says the company's communications director Johanna Boijer-Svahnström.

Several smaller technical problems also plagued the ship last week, but the problems are not linked in any way, Boijer-Svahnström says.

The FSTR ship currently carries passengers three times a day between both destinations. The ship has been in operation since April, and the company says it has worked without issue since it was taken into service.

Viking Line has a lease to use the FSTR catamaran until the end of the year, and a continuation of the contract has not yet been decided.

The ship cuts the travel time between Helsinki and Tallinn to one hour and 45 minutes and can hold over 800 passengers and 120 vehicles.

The tabloid Ilta-Sanomat was the first to report on the cancelled departures.